May 4 Jesus: The Exact Representation of God

The anonymous writer of the book of Hebrews said, “The Son is the radiance of God's glory, and the exact representation of His being (Heb 1:3). And, a guy by the name of Paul, who was as intelligent as he was instrumental in the Christian formation, wrote to some friends in Philippi that Jesus has the same nature as God (Phil 2:6). To some friends in Colossae he said, Jesus is God’s image (Col 1:5). And John, someone who probably knew Jesus extremely well, wrote that Jesus was God (John 1). And on and on… in other words, Jesus is God. God’s not schizophrenic. There’s not a Mean-OT-God, and then a Nice-NT-God. It’s one God, and Jesus shows us who He is. Jesus is His exact representation.

Sometimes (OK, often) you’ll find people who want to suggest that the only way God could ever have loved us, or accepted us, or dealt with us, or put up with us, was to have Jesus around to distract Him. There’s this thought that God is so turned off by sin that He can’t even stand to be around sinners. But, have you ever read something about Jesus that even remotely suggests He couldn’t handle being around sinners? Can you picture Jesus turning away in disgust, saying to Peter, “Oh, Pete, take that person away from me! I just can't bear to be around their sin?” I cannot picture this either. It was the opposite. He was, in fact, called the friend of sinners. The friend of sinners was the exact representation of God.